OPPORTUNITIES 

for  Work  with 

The  AMERICAN  INDIAN 


Elmer  E.  Lindquist 


INTERCHURCH  WORLD  MOVEMENT 
OF  NORTH  AMERICA 
45  West  18th  Street  New  York  City 


Pricte:  2 cents  each:  20  cents 
per  dozen:  $1.50  per  hundred. 


OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  WORK  WITH 
THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN 

By  Elmer  E.  Lindquist 

There  are  approximately  336,000  In- 
dians in  continental  United  States.  They 
are  to  be  found  in  practically  every 
state  in  the  union,  but  chiefly  on  the  147 
reservations  and  in  scattered  communities 
throughout  twenty  states.  There  are  tribal 
bands  and  clans  exceeding  150  in  number, 
all  speaking  different  languages  and  dialects. 

In  Canada  there  are  100,000  Indians,  in 
Alaska  37,000,  in  Mexico  3,000,000,  and  in 
Central  and  South  America — no  one  knows, 
but  a conservative  estimate  would  place 
them  at  12,000,000.  In  the  “red  man’s  con- 
tinent” therefore,  there  are  still  Indians.  In 
the  United  States  in  1890,  the  census  figures 
showed  248,253.  Since  that  time,  there  has 
been  an  increase  in  population  due  to  bet- 
ter living  conditions,  and  a more  ready  ad- 
justment to  the  demands  of  modern  life. 
Nine  thousand  Indian  youths  heard  their 
country’s  call  in  the  late  war,  six  thousand 
being  volunteers. 

The  Indian  of  the  old  trail  was  a religious 
being.  The  very  perils  and  hardships  of 
the  chase  and  warpath  created  in  him  a 
longing  for  some  relationship  with  the  un- 
seen world  of  mystery  round  about  him.  So 
he  established  such  relationships  as  he  could 
through  fastings  and  visions,  sacrifices  and 
immolations.  The  spirits  which  gave  him 
good  success  in  the  chase  and  thus  staved 
off  starvation  and  famine  were  not  to  go 
unhonored  or  unsung.  They  became  the 
“baalim”  of  the  nomad’s  land,  with  the 
medicine  men  or  priests  as  the  chief  expo- 
nents of  this  worship. 


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But  the  old  Indian  has  passed  on,  leaving 
behind  chiefly  such  vestiges  of  the  old  regime 
as  "war  paint  and  feathers,  bow  and  arrow, 
blanket  and  moccasin. 

The  Indian  of  today  is  just  coming  into 
citizenship.  He  must  meet  the  demands  of 
this  new  transition  period.  He  has  entered 
upon  the  highway  of  knowledge  and  can- 
not turn  back  to  the  old  trails.  Yet  the  old 
nomadic  habits,  the  tyranny  of  custom  and 
superstition,  the  downward  pull  of  the  past, 
the  evils  of  present-day  civilization  consti- 
tute so  many  barriers  to  the  red  man’s  ad- 
vance. Right  here  the  “Jesus  Road,”  as  the 
Indians  call  Christianity,  opens  up  a new 
and  living  way  with  its  appeal  for  a vital 
relationship  with  God  as  Father  and  Jesus 
Christ  as  elder  brother,  with  its  insistence 
on  “a  fair  chance  for  every  man  at  every 
good  thing.” 

The  very  presence  of  the  native  American 
in  such  numbers  and  in  such  widely  scat- 
tered areas  on  the  “red  man’s  continent” 
offers  a present-day  challenge  to  missionary 
endeavor  and  to  the  assimilating,  all-encom- 
passing power  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
Last  year  less  than  one  dollar  per  capita 
was  spent  by  Protestant  churches  to  edu- 
cate and  Christianize  the  American  Indian. 
Today  less  than  one-third  of  the  Indians 
are  related  to  the  various  Christian  com- 
munions; approximately  46,000  are  neglected 
by  Christian  agencies. 

The  present  situation  calls  for  a states- 
manlike program  of  advance  with  the  follow- 
ing definite  objectives: 

I The  speedy  evangelization  of  pagan 
tribes  and  portions  of  tribes.  “The  evangel- 
ization of  the  Indian  in  this  generation”  is 
the  watchword.  The  work  must  be  primarily 
personal.  The  “friendship  road”  is  the 
highway  open  to  their  hearts.  This  calls 
for  personal  workers,  an  increasingly  larger 
number  who  will  go  from  camp  to  camp. 


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from  tepee  to  tepee,  from  lodge  to  lodge, 
teaching  them  the  ways  of  a covenant-keeping 
God  with  whom  there  can  be  neither  “bar- 
barian, Scythian,  bondman  nor  freeman,  but 
all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus.” 

II  An  adequate  program  of  religious  edu- 
cation. Of  the  more  than  300  government 
Indian  schools,  200  are  day  schools,  70  res- 
ervation boarding  schools,  2 sanitariums,  and 
24  non-reservation  schools.  There  are  also 
9 tribal  schools  in  eastern  Oklahoma.  The 
average  attendance  is  given  as  25,822.  Non- 
reservation schools  carry  the  largest  enrol- 
ment. There  are  29,463  Indians  enrolled  in 
public  or  private  schools.  The  Roman  Cath- 
olics have  47  mission  schools  and  the  Protes- 
tants 25.  The  combined  enrolment  is  not 
calculated  to  exceed  5,000. 

To  create  a Christian  atmosphere  in  gov- 
ernment schools  is  no  easy  task.  There  is 
great  need  for  teachers  and  employees  who 
will  enter  the  Government  Indian  Service 
with  the  ambition  of  “placing  upon  another 
the  impress  of  a high  and  lofty  character 
and  sharing  with  this  other  his  own  best 
vision.”  Field  matrons  are  greatly  needed 
on  reservations  and  in  Indian  communities. 

Mission  schools  must  be  greatly  strength- 
ened. Some  of  the  government  schools  are 
now  being  closed  or  consolidated.  Public 
schools  are  not  yet  provided  in  sufficient 
numbers  and  in  suitable  locations  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  Indian  youth.  Thousands 
of  children  are  not  in  school.  Fully  7,000 
Navajos  are  without  school  facilities.  Not 
only  must  there  be  a substantial  material 
equipment  for  these  mission  schools,  but  they 
must  be  manned  by  a devoted  and  loyal 
band  of  teachers.  These  schools  are  largely 
industrial  and  demand  teachers  who  have 
had  vocational  as  well  as  academic  train- 
ing. 

The  material  for  religious  education  must 
be  adapted  to  the  needs  of  a primitive  peo- 


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pie,  to  give  expression  to  their  thinking, 
vrhich  is  concrete  and  not  abstract.  This 
calls,  among  other  things,  for  religious  work 
directors  for  key  institutions  who  shall  work 
out  and  direct  a unified  program  where  there 
shall  be  a united  approach  on  the  part  of 
all  Protestant  agencies,  a federation  of 
Christian  activities  including  the  Christian 
Associations. 

III  A program  of  applied  social  Chris- 
tianity in  Indian  communities  and  on  reser- 
vations. It  must  be  intensely  practical  and 
should  embody  the  social  message  of  the 
gospel  in  all  its  applications  to  modern  life. 
The  Indian  has  little  conception  of  organ- 
ized life.  He  needs  therefore  to  know  com- 
munity organization  at  its  best.  This  calls 
for  community  leaders  and  community  centers 
which  will  furnish  a natural  rallying  ground 
for  the  returned  students  and  which  will 
hold  the  young  people  steady  as  they  come 
back  home  from  school. 

IV  Discovering  and  developing  a trained 
native  Christian  leadership.  “Every  race  in 
the  end  must  be  elevated  by  its  own  edu- 
cated leadership,”  said  a wise  leader  of  his 
people.  That  is  the  crying  need  in  the 
Indian  country  today.  That  the  Indian  is 
capable  of  leadership  we  all  recognize.  To 
help  provide  that  leadership  a training  school 
for  Indians  is  already  in  operation.  The 
present  plans  call  for  an  enlargement  and  de- 
velopment of  this  school  through  union  effort 
until  it  shall  become  a power  in  the  Indian 
life  of  our  country. 

Agencies  at  Work  with  the  Indian 

The  United  States  Government  maintains 
a Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs  under  the  De- 
partment of  the  Interior.  There_  are  ap- 
proximately 6,000  employees,  one-third  being 
Indians. 

There  are  twenty  different  boards  and  so- 
cieties representing  the  Protestant  churches 


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at  work  among  the  Indians  in  the  United 
States.  In  addition,  there  are  several  impor- 
tant branches  of  the  Young  Men’s  Christian 
Association  and  of  the  Young  Women’s 
Christian  Association,  a few  independent  mis- 
sions and  the  Roman  Catholics.  The  Indian 
Rights  Association,  the  National  Indian  Asso- 
ciation and  the  John  Eliot  Society  are  help- 
ful organizations. 

Types  of  Work 

I Government  Service.  To  those  con- 
sidering the  Government  Indian  Service  the 
following  positions  are  open;  teachers  in 
academic,  industrial  and  vocational  depart- 
ments ; home  economics,  the  trades,  agricul- 
ture, nursing,  medical  work,  field  matrons; 
clerical  work.  There  are  also  certain  ad- 
ministrative and  executive  positions  such  as 
superintendencies  and  principalships.  Appli- 
cations should  be  made  through  the  regular 
channels  of  the  Civil  Service  Bureau,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

II  Evangelistic  ‘work,  calling  for  or- 
dained missionaries,  Bible  colporteurs,  itin- 
erant preachers  and  Bible  teachers  for  house 
to  house  visitation;  superintendents  in  charge 
of  mission  stations  where  there  are  native 
pastors,  catechists,  interpreters  and  helpers. 
Apply  to  your  denominational  home  mission 
board  or  society  doing  work  among  Indians. 

III  Teachers  in  missions  schools  in  aca- 
demic, industrial  and  vocational  subjects; 
directors  of  community  centers  and  commu- 
nity houses  involving  a unified  social  and 
recreational  program ; field  matrons  giving 
attention  to  home  economics,  housing,  sanita- 
tion ; deaconess  luork.  Apply  as  above. 

IV  Industrial  Work:  Trained  agricul- 
turists, mechanics,  farm  superintendents,  eta 
Apply  as  above. 

V Medical  Work'.  Physicians  and  ser- 
geons,  nurses  for  hospital  and  field  work. 
Apply  as  above. 


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VI  Directors  of  religious  education  in 
government  schools;  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Y.  W. 
C.  A.  Secretaries,  including  student,  county 
and  community  work.  Apply,  Joint  Commit- 
tee Indian  Missions  of  the  Home  Missions 
Council ; Y.  M.  C.  A.  International  Commit- 
tee for  Indian  Work  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Na- 
tional Board. 


No.  475,  LW.  I.  10.  Feb.  1920. 


